Your sleep cycle-what are the various phases?

Understanding your sleep cycle

Have you ever stopped to think that fully 1/3 of your life is spent sleeping? Indeed, sleep, take more time each day than any other activity. But what actually happens, while we sleep?

Most people have heard of REM and non-REM sleep. REM or rapid eye movement sleep is the period in which we can dream. The rest of the temporal cycle consists of non-REM sleep.

Non-REM sleep is divided into four basic phases. We cycle through these phases throughout the night, each cycle culminates in the REM sleep cycle lasts between 90 to 110 minutes, after which is repeated.

Early in the night, our bodies are, if necessary, a deep sleep, which means that we spend the greater part of the cycle of our sleep during the different phases of a deep sleep. As the night progresses, we will feel much better rested and spent more time in REM sleep.

To understand the stages of sleep, it is important to know the ways in which scientists measure the temporal cycle. The first measurement is carried out in electroencephalography, or EEG. EEG measures brain waves, when you are asleep. Each phase is characterized by a different pattern of brain waves. Another measure is the muscle tone, which is the electromyogram or EMG. This measures the effect of the different sleep stages on the muscles. Finally, the movement of the eye is measured electro-oculogram, or EOG.

The Awakening

Your brain is very active when you're awake. Your brain waves have a high frequency, which means that the chart occur close together, and low amplitude, which means that in the chart are short, without large spikes. Do not follow a regular pattern of brain waves, instead of constantly changing as the progress made during the day. These brain waves are called Beta waves.

When you go up on a regular basis your brain waves. Amplitude and frequency slows down. These brain waves are called alpha waves.

Phase 1

The first phase of sleep occurs, when you first go to bed. Enter a State in which the majority is sleeping, but they are still easy to wake up. Eyes move slowly, as the drift in another State. Sometimes sleepers will have to "sleep starts" with where sudden contractions of muscles, or myoclonic jerks hypnic myoclonia, causing a feeling of falling. How did you go to sleep, your brain waves slow even further than the sitting, falling into a slower rate, a higher-amplitude wave called the Theta waves. Stage 1 sleep usually does not last too long.

Phase 2

Stage 2 sleep is deeper than phase 1. Your eyes to stop moving and slow down your brain waves. Occasional bursts of quick brain activity called sleep spindles and the greater the amplitude of the wave called the complexes are typical for the stage 2 sleep. Most of the brain waves are Theta waves in the stage 2 sleep. As stage 1 sleep sleep phase 2 lasts longer than a few minutes.

Phase 3

As you go deeper into sleep, your brain shall settle into a pattern of slow high-amplitude Delta waves is called. It is the beginning of a deep sleep. Your body is relaxing, my eyes are still and have a deep sleep. In stage 3 sleep just under 50% of his brain waves are with spikes higher activity between the quieter times of the Delta waves.

Phase 4

As the phase 3, many of this stage is characterized by Delta waves of brain activity. More than 50% of his brain waves are Delta waves, but occasional bursts of higher activities still occur. It is very difficult to wake a person from stage 4 sleep. Interesting is that it's during stage 4 sleep most of the cases of sleepwalking, nightmares and even pomo?cnim. Stage 4 sleep lasts the longest at the beginning of the night, but gradually reduces the length, in the course of the night until almost disappears into the early morning.

REM

After the body has crawled from 1 to 4. phase of sleep, by contacting the model returns to the first phase of sleep, REM sleep, just before you start dreaming how, that there are many changes in your body. Breathing becomes rapid and irregular, the eyes begin to move, often with jerky movements, and becomes elevated heart rate. At the same time, your brain waves active, like you, while you're awake. The body produces a chemical that will paralyze the muscles, while you eat, you throw and hurt. Measured using ELECTROMYOGRAPHY (EMG), which collects the sudden and substantial loss of muscular tone. If you woke up during REM sleep, may be lousy in detail.

Most people will browse this cycle of sleep stages 3-5 times during the night. The early stages there will be a long period of REM sleep, but in the course of the night will be your dream stage. It was theorized that we use to process the information taken REM sleep a day. It is interesting to children spend 50% of their sleeping time in REM sleep As we age, we require. less REM sleep. Adults spend approximately 20% of the night in REM sleep

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